Just Friends
by WellingtonBoot
Summary: Cloud and Tifa are just friends, right? As the romantic tension begins to build the fine lines between friendship, more than friends and perhaps something a little more become increasingly blurry. A gradual stumble into romance.
1. How Awkward

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_**Author's Note:**. This entire story is already complete in draft form! Stay tuned..._

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**Chapter 1**

**~ How Awkward ~**

She was polishing down the bar surfaces. He was maintaining his bike in the garage. The children were playing outside in the new park that had recently been built nearby. A typical Sunday afternoon at Seventh Heaven.

The sun was beaming down through the windows and heating up the entire house. It was an oven. All the windows were open but Tifa wished the air conditioner was working properly just for once. She smoothed over her brow haphazardly and fanned herself with her black vest that she had slipped off in the heat. It wasn't working.

Cloud emerged from the garage wiping his brow. He was glistening all over with a slight shimmer of sweat. He'd even had to remove his shirt it was so hot. Tifa looked up as he strode up to the bar. She was ignoring how accentuated the groves in between his muscles were in his arms and shoulders, stomach and back. His broad chest. He planted his forearms on the bar surface, looking at her like a thirsty puppy.

"Drink?" she asked.

He nodded his head. The sunshine beaming through the garage window combined with the smell of oil and engine grease had made him thirsty and slightly nauseous. She took one of the pint glasses from the shelf above her, filled it with cold water and made sure to add plenty of ice.

He would have noticed the tautening of the muscles in her slim tummy as she reached up, how her tank top slowly rose up her back and exposed more of her slender figure and flesh as she extended her arms, but he was too caught up staring down at the beads of sweat that had gathered around his hairline. They were glinting on his fingertips from running his hands through his hair.

He sat down on one of the bar stools as she handed him the icy cold water and he gulped down half a pint in one go. He coughed heartily as he felt the cold liquid channel down his throat and past his lungs, cooling him from the inside. He then looked up feeling a little better. Tifa was giving him a funny look, screwing her eyebrows up at him.

"What is it?" he asked cautiously.

She didn't even pause. "You need to have a shower."

He looked up suddenly at her bluntness. He then turned his head slowly into his shoulder, gently inhaling. He winced a little. He really did need a shower.

"Towel?" he asked with raised eyebrows.

"Got it," she said saluting the air playfully and disappeared into the washing room.

He smiled to himself. It had been a slow afternoon but somehow he was now enjoying it much more, even if he did need a shower. He swallowed down the rest of his water and slipped off his stool. He walked round to the sink behind the bar to put down his glass but found himself staring at the little ice cubes skating about at the bottom of it. He thought for a minute and then decided that, in this heat, perhaps he shouldn't waste them. He popped one into his mouth.

"Here you go," she called, re-emerging holding one of the softer towels .

He swallowed down his ice cube to allow himself to speak. Then a lot happened at once; he felt a sharp pain in his forehead, she was still approaching him, he grabbed hold of the bar, she reached out for his arms in concern, in attempting to move off the bar he lost his balance and collided with her, they both lost their balance, the room began to spin and then both of them tumbled ungraciously to the floor in a loud crash.

For a moment nothing felt very normal. Where were his legs? His arms? He could feel something, something warm, hard and soft. It felt like it was curled around him this way and that. It also smelt nice... like good cooking, moutain floral winds and something attractively feminine. As he began to pull himself onto his elbows he became increasingly aware of the smoothness of another's skin in contact with his own as his tummy moved smoothly over theirs, gliding effortlessly with the beads of moisture on each of their skin. His eyes gained a little more focus as he willed himself to open them. He was lying right on top of Tifa, pinning her to the ground with his weight. The air suddenly felt extremely hot. Even hotter than before. _Incredibly_ hot, and he increasingly became aware of something he desperately hoped she wasn't. They were face to face, their chests just millimetres apart, both turning an burning shade of pink. He couldn't move.

"I um-"

He was suddenly twisted, somehow thrown and found himself staring upwards at the dark ceiling. Tifa was already on her feet.

"Towel's there, okay?" she managed breathlessly, flustered.

He tilted his neck just in time to see the back of her walking quickly towards the stairs before she disappeared suddenly behind the wall of the staircase.

_That was... interesting._

Cloud pulled himself back up to his feet and, as he reached for his towel, mulled over what had really just happened. But then again perhaps he just shouldn't think about it. It will be one of those events that no one ever speaks of again. It was just too... embarrassing for them both. Besides, they were just friends. It was much easier that way.

With that trail of thought he slung his towel over his shoulder and headed upstairs for his shower. Afterwards he would have his nap, pack the bike, double check his route in his office and then set off as soon as the light started to fade. He'd be off earning his keep. His typical routine. Life completely as normal.

_But still...__ how awkward._


	2. Misunderstandings

**Chapter 2**

**~ Misunderstandings ~**

A few days later Tifa received a phone call from an old friend of theirs. Cloud was in the shower when the phone went off. He also continued to shower as the phone constantly rang, never ceasing, continually in want of someone to answer it until he realised the phone was on the sink hardly an arm-stretch away. Tifa always seemed to leave her mobile there. He sighed and turned off the taps. No doubt the caller would ring again in their apparent desperation to reach her.

She was gazing out of her window of her room when he intruded, still wet from his shower, wrapped from the waist down in his soft towel, holding out her mobile phone. For a moment she seemed to freeze. Quickly she came back to life again and carefully took her mobile from his hand.

"You left your phone on the sink again."

"Thanks, Cloud."

He didn't want this exchange to be awkward but at the same time he was very aware that he was barely covered apart from the towel and considering the other day... it was already a bad start.

"I bet you anything it's Yuffie," he said as he pulled the door tight.

At least he caught sight of a smile.

***

"Guys! It's been too long! I brought you those Wutai spices you like Tifa. I got nothing for you though, Cloud."

"Thanks, Yuffie," he replied.

So began a typical visit of Yuffie. She always livened up the house, brought epic stories from afar, shared the inside knowledge she had on the evolving politics and development of Edge and the rest of the world and so on. Or at least that was what Cloud always saw.

When Cloud heard his office phone ringing he excused himself. Yuffie and Tifa were left alone.

"So, how are things?" Yuffie prodded.

"Business is good. Marlene is getting into cooking now so maybe she'll be my back-up for preparing the food the orders soon. Denzel's started going with Cloud on his deliveries..."

"No, no, no. I'm asking about things between you and_ Cloud_."

Maybe Tifa shouldn't have given her that tequila shot.

"What about them?"

"Have I missed anything major?"

"What are you talking about, Yuffie?"

"You know what I'm talking about, Tifa!"

"What? Like Cloud buying some milk the other day?"

"Anything a little more romantic? Or was that an innuendo?"

"Would you like another _drink_, Yuffie?"

Yuffie gasped. "So something _has_ happened!"

"No, Yuffie, because I don't know what you mean. We're just... friends."

She'd hit a more serious note.

Yuffie put down her drink as she looked at Tifa. "But _you_ love_ him_."

Tifa bit her lip in response. She didn't want to enter this conversation. Yuffie leaned forward in her chair. She was looking at the ring on Tifa's right hand.

"He's given you a ring, Tifa, with his symbol on it. That's hardly nothing to think about."

"It's just a ring, Yuffie. It's hardly anything significant to me," she said turning away.

Yuffie was stuck on what she should say next when Tifa stood up from her chair and moved towards the bar. A few more drinks was suddenly very tempting. As she manoeuvred herself behind the wooden surface she caught sight of something black and large in the doorway to the stairs in the corner of her eye. She turned her head. Cloud was all at once face-to-face with Tifa, leaning heavily on the door frame, his eyes unreadable, his face expressionless.

In the background Yuffie's hands shot to the back of her head, pushing wildly into her scalp as she muttered under her breath, "Oh shi-."

Cloud remained where he was, blinked lazily, slowly took his weight off the door frame and then headed back up the stairs. The heavy foot falls echoed around Tifa's ears as they faded onto the landing.

Tifa was left mortified staring through the doorway. Yuffie's hair was a mad ball of disbelief.


	3. Opened Mouth Inserted Foot

**Chapter 3**

**~ Opened Mouth Inserted Foot **_~  
_

She wasn't able to talk to him for the next day. In fact she avoided him altogether.

_How am I going to explain myself out of this?_

She knew Cloud, and though she'd never seen that face before, she knew what she had done when she'd looked into those stone-blue eyes of his, and then watched him walk casually back up the stairs as if he'd never come down in the first place.

"_It's hardly anything significant to me,"_ repeated over and over in her head. Of course she hadn't meant it that way.

She buried her face up into the palms of her hands and groaned. She stayed like that, listening to the faint sounds of everyday life bustling in the streets outside.

But then another thought suddenly occurred to her: how long had he been in the doorway like that?

What if he'd heard...

There was a sickly feeling in the pit of her stomach.

"Oh no..." she murmured into the damp air of the storeroom.

If it was that too, how would she explain herself out of the fact that she _loved_ him? What if he now _knew_?

She slid her face further into her hands, her elbows perched on the edge of a dusty shelf. Hanging her head, she was now ready to die.

_Impossible..._

"Tifa?"

Cloud was calling to her through the door. She seized on the spot.

"The alcohol delivery guys are here."

She listened as he moved away from the door and his footsteps died as they ascended the stairs. He had sounded calm, but then he always sounded calm. Either way, she still wasn't ready to face him, but at least now it was safe. She came out of the storeroom with the bottles of soda she had gone to retrieve a good twenty minutes before and looked around for the delivery men.

They weren't there.

She headed down through the garage to find they weren't outside either. Perplexity started to overcome her. Taking one last look down the side street she turned back towards the bar.

She was still approaching the door when it closed suddenly at only metres away, causing her to jump. Cloud emerged and began to walk down the steps to the rough concrete floor, descending one step at a time with his calm stride and heavy boots, looking straight at her with his piercing eyes. She felt sick again, but she sighed in defeat.

_I guess it's best we get it over with now._

"It may not be important to you but it's important to me," he said firmly as he approached her.

She was taken off guard by his tone. It was a mix of annoyance, anger and frustration.

"What do you mean?" she asked him cautiously.

He stepped forward, took her right hand in his left and turned it over so that the Cloudy Wolf ring was in plain view.

"I gave you this because you're important to me. You, Denzel, Barrett; all of you. I don't want you to ever forget that."

He seemed so determined, so passionate.

"Promise me you won't forget," he commanded.

"...I promise," she stammered.

With that he was satisfied, turned, and strode back up the steps and into the house. She was stunned.


	4. Black Coffee

**Chapter 4**

**~ Black Coffee ~  
**

It wasn't often they visited Rocket Town. They barely got round to it at all. But when Cid called up at two in the morning heartily asking Cloud to deliver a turbine part for modifications to his airship, _The Shera_, before they knew it both him and Tifa had been invited over for tea, coffee and a catch-up. Tifa had happily accepted.

As they pulled up outside the house on Cloud's bike they first noticed how the house had gained a gentle and tidy touch, the work of Shera, no doubt, and then, second, the huge steel structure now looming over and behind the house. It was a ten times its original size. They realised it must be Cid's new "garage".

"Shera!" Tifa called and they fast approached each other and began to chat.

Cid came out of the house behind Shera and casually walked up to Cloud.

"Cloud," he greeted with a nod.

"Cid," he returned.

Inside the house not too much had changed but it was a little more decorated and homely. Tifa walked up to Cid and Shera's wedding picture and Cloud watched as her face lit up. She was remembering the event. It had been a sweet little wedding in the square of the town.

"Tea, coffee?" Shera called from the kitchen.

"Tea," said Tifa.

"Black coffee," Cloud replied and tried to interest himself in the pictures on the walls while he waited.

On the far left wall there were many pictures of Cid with the many airships that he had built or attempted to do-up since he was a teenage boy. At the very end of the long line of photos was the largest photo of all. There was Cid, his arm hooked firmly around Shera, a few other workmen, a couple of engineers and some local townspeople, probably other friends of theirs, all standing in front of the nose of _The Shera, _smiling and waving to the cameraman. Cloud walked up to the picture and studied Cid's rugged face a little closer.

_He looks the happiest there._

***

"How's married life then? I've seen you've made some changes, Shera," Tifa asked, setting down her second cup of tea.

"Yes! Cid helped me of course. Right, Cid?" Shera beamed.

Cid reached behind his head to scratch his neck. Cloud could see he was embarrassed but in a good way.

"Do you have anything else planned?" Cloud asked.

"Well, we have been thinking about something..." Shera trailed off.

There was a pause.

"I wouldn't mind a Cid Highwind the Second to carry on my legacy. After all, how else will my genes pass down? Great airships don't make themselves and I can teach him how to fix up his first little plane, fly, take him on rides in _The Shera_, teach him the ins and outs of an engine, the "Highwind code"... "

Cid's burst had taken both Cloud and Tifa off guard. Their faces fell into the same amused expression without knowing it. Shera watched them engagingly with her dark green eyes.

"Then of course there's your children. Denzel must be approaching his teens now, right?"

Cloud and Tifa exchanged glances and found it so awkward they had to look away again. _Their_ children? Cid and Shera had been watching this exchange from their side of the table with puzzled fascination until they'd realised how indelicate Shera's choice of words had been. In an attempt to diffuse the awkwardness Cid stood up and proposed, "Hey Cloud, I want to show you what a _real_ engine looks like. More powerful than that scooter you have out there."

Cloud was about to protest at the insult to Fenrir's very far from unreal engine but smiled in acceptance instead. He followed Cid into the huge steel structure behind the house.

"Wow, Cid. You could start your own production line of small planes in here."

"Don't be an idiot. Only suits think about making a profit. Real engineers build for the sake of it; for the pleasure of it. That's Cid Highwind right there," he said, pointing to his chest.

Cloud continued to stare up at the huge engine suspended from the ceiling. He could understand why Cid had been so enthusiastic at the early hours of the morning to get the new parts for it. It was beautiful.

"Say, what the hell happened in there? You and Tifa went bright red."

One of the workmen came up to them with two porcelain mugs of steaming black coffee, more caffeine. It was then Cloud realised he wasn't going to sleep that night.

"I think... it just sounded a little strange, Cid."

Cid made a loud sound resembling a laugh and sat down on a huge black coil lying on the floor. Cloud sat on a huge turbine blade opposite.

"Do you like living with her?"

"Of course, I'm very happy," Cloud said, about to take a gulp of his coffee.

"Why don't you jump into bed with her one night and get it over with then?"

Hot coffee went flying all over the floor as Cloud choked and spluttered into his coffee mug.

"What?"

"Come on, I saw you under _The Highwind_ the morning before the final battle. I'm not a f-" As the memory hit Cloud Cid's swearing faded out into the back of his head. Of course, how could he have let it slip his mind? The night he and Tifa had spent under _The Highwind_. It felt so long ago.

But he shook his head. Things like that were safer at the back of his mind, out of reach to think about, out of reach of ruining something perfectly good they already had.

Right?

He sighed and took a sip of the little coffee remaining in the mug.

_Just don't think about it._


	5. Silver and Seek

**Chapter 5**

**~ Silver and Seek ~**_  
_

"Cloud!"

Marlene ran up to Cloud at his desk, holding something small and silver in her hand.

"I think Tifa left it on the edge of the bath. Can you give it to her? We're not allowed in the bar after ten o'clock."

He opened his hand to receive the small silver ring with his wolf emblem on it. Why was she always leaving things in the bathroom?

Marlene went back to her bedroom leaving Cloud alone in his office. He held the ring in his hand for a moment and then clasped his hand shut. Tifa was probably too busy downstairs to receive it so he decided to leave it on her bed-side table. Wondering into her bedroom he placed down the ring and found himself looking at it for a moment. He then let out a small sigh and retreated from the room. He pulled the door closed behind him.

The next morning she was very cheerful. She made his coffee as she always did, cooked his breakfast, gave him his lunch and told him to drive safely with her fantastic smile, but all the while he was distracted.

"Tifa, where's your ring?"

She looked at him blankly before looking down at her hand and blanching in the face.

"I must have left it somewhere," she said, trying to sound calm.

He was going to have a little fun.

"Oh, okay," was all he replied and he headed to the garage to be on his way.

It wasn't long before he heard the clattering of bottles at the bar as she frantically searched for the ring. With an amused shake of his head he rolled Fenrir out of the garage and set off to make his deliveries.

When he finally returned he was exhausted and had to take a deep breath of the stale garage air. He dismounted from his bike and strayed into the bar, thankful for the homely warmth. He then noticed Tifa standing like a statue in the middle of the room with her face in her hands.

"Um... Tifa?"

She looked up.

"Oh... Cloud. Good day?"

"Yeah."

He then noticed she was holding her hands behind her back. He eyed her suspiciously. Noticing this she began to move in the direction of the stairs. He still couldn't see her hands because they were now in front of her.

"Well, it's late. I'll see you tomorrow."

She began to take her exit.

He folded his arms, tilted his head to one side and asked, "Did you find it?"

She stopped her ascent and turned to meet his gaze. Her right hand was still out of view. She didn't say anything.

He unfolded his arms and couldn't help smiling.

"Did you check your room?"

"Yes," she said, looking confused.

"Did you check your bed-side table?"

She frowned at him and then sprang from her step, up the stairs and into her room. He followed. As he peered in her doorway he saw her pick up the ring in amazement.

"How did you know?"

"I put it there last night when Marlene found it."

She slipped the ring back on her finger and then looked up at him.

"I'm sorry, Cloud," she said honestly.

He shook his head.

"Don't be sorry. You searched for it all day." He paused. "In a way, it's important to you like you are to me."

Tifa's face contorted a little. He was confused at her reaction.

"Yeah," was all she replied and she gave him a forced smile.

It cut deep in his chest.

When she cleared her throat he realised it was time to leave. He stepped back into the hallway.

"Good night, Cloud." She shut the door behind him.

He remained outside her door until he heard the loud click of the latch falling into place. He had to pry his legs from their spot in front of her door to bring himself to his own room. He didn't feel right. He felt unsteady. It had been a long time since he'd seen her smile like that.


	6. Flirt Flirt Revenge

**Chapter 6**

**~ Flirt Flirt Revenge ~**_  
_

"So, Vincent, what have you been doing since we last saw you?" Tifa asked.

It was late afternoon and Seventh Heaven was about to open. Vincent had been on his way through Edge to meet with Reeve and so had decided to drop by. Cloud and Tifa had both been pleasantly surprised by it, and, with Tifa's shy encouragement, Cloud had decided to take the night off.

"Gathering intel on Shinra and the new oil companies that are establishing themselves," Vincent replied.

They continued with more small talk until Tifa realised the time with a small gasp. She flipped the "open" sign at the front of the bar and turned on all the lights, illuminating the bar's logo outside. Cloud and Vincent moved to sit on the stools near the end of the bar to make more room for the customers. The regulars soon poured in, then the occasional customers, then some new faces and so on. Vincent found himself enjoying the atmosphere. As he and Cloud drank their drinks Vincent's eyes wondered around the bustle of bodies clinging about the tables. Eventually his dark eyes steadied, and he found himself watching how Tifa interacted with the customers. After some time he decided to relay his observations to Cloud:

"If she flirted more she'd get more tips," he said, nodding his head in Tifa's direction as she took an order from a male customer.

Cloud looked up at him and then watched Tifa himself. He could see where Vincent was coming from. When he went to bars as he travelled around himself the bartenders would often flirt with him. They were always, or at least usually, women and girls. It didn't make him tip any more or any less himself, but he had seen how it worked on other men.

Tifa soon approached them again.

"Tifa, you should try flirting to get more tips," Cloud said innocently.

Tifa stopped what she was doing and gave him an icy look.

"What makes you think I need more tips?"

"I'm not saying you need them, just that you'd get more if you flirted once in a while."

"And what exactly would _the _Cloud Strife define as flirting?"

"I don't know." Cloud struggled as he raked his thoughts. "Raise your eyebrows a little, wink once in a while, toss your hair, smile a little more, squint your eyes a little, giggle, laugh..."

With every word Tifa's frown deepened to the extent that Vincent thought she was about to eat him alive. The poor guy was clueless, and he continued to try to define what flirting was to her.

She suddenly interrupted Cloud mid-way through his list, "Alright, Cloud! If you insist!" and hastily strutted off to the other end of the bar.

Vincent had watched the whole exchange uncomfortably, resisting the urge to shift under his cloak.

"Are you... okay with that, Cloud?" Vincent asked tentatively.

"Yeah, if all the other female bartenders do it to get more money then I don't see why Tifa shouldn't."

Vincent let out a sigh into the high collar of his red cloak.

_You'll see, Cloud_

***

A few afternoons later and Cloud was finding it hard to concentrate on his maps. She'd got more tips, sure, but the number of men checking her out had tripled within the space of the first hour on the very first night, and, because she was flirting just as he'd suggested she should, he couldn't tell if she was enjoying it or not. The after effects were becoming more evident in the afternoon rush for lunch. Plenty of workmen and builders came in from the major construction going on just down the street, much more than usual. He was hoping the construction would hurry up and finish.

He forced his eyes to avert from the burly men populating the tables and get on with planning his routes. As he traced his way back to a little stronghold in a corner of the Junon region he suddenly found a certain feeling irking him again, that want to turn around and check that she wasn't being pestered, bothered or... enjoying herself. He heard yet another set of heavy, confident footfalls moving across the floor towards her at the bar. His eyes flicked up briefly but he forced himself to look down again. He was just getting paranoid. It would just be another looser like all the rest. There was nothing to worry about.

Then she was laughing again in that modestly flirtatious way that was driving him mad.

_Don't look up. Don't look up._

The tip of his pencil suddenly flew into his face as it snapped under the pressure of his frustration, his fierce pushing of it into the table. He placed the pencil down, defeated, on the table-top, and folded his arms where he sat. He pushed his shoulders back into the hard wood of the chair. After a few moments he finally gave into temptation and looked over to the bar. There she was with her smouldering eyes, soft lips, delicately caressing her dark hair back behind her ear whenever it fell down over her face, with that sexy smile, smoothed over voice, uncommon, breath-taking beauty, all while she teased and giggled at all the men as they ogled back at her, trying not to fumble their order.

He was going to snap.

Then he realised who and what she was talking to and his frustration suddenly stilled. His concentration honed in on the new man at the bar. He stood up and walked slowly into a position with a better view. The man was bulky in a muscular way, good looking, dressed smarter than the others which suggested he was doing quite well for himself but, most importantly, he was perfectly mirroring everything Tifa did. He was definitely flirting back.

When the good looking guy with the muscular shoulders and smart suit finally finished his drink he left with a big wave to Tifa who gave a small wave back. Cloud finally decided to approach the bar.

"Do you want something, Cloud?" she asked with a smile; her normal, sweet smile.

"Maybe you shouldn't flirt as much."

She paused slightly as she took another glass from the shelf.

"What makes you say that? I'm getting plenty more tips just like you said I would."

"Yes, but you're attracting some of the wrong kind of attention."

"Oh?"

"Just watch out for ex-SOLDIERs, okay? I know what they're like."

He began to move back from behind the bar when Tifa stopped him, "Cloud, thank you."

He nodded his head and returned to his table. There he took back up his pencil, sharpened it, and got back on with his route planning. The bustle of the mid-day hours eventually died down; the workmen filtered back to their construction sites; the women with their young children walked back to their nearby homes; the regulars took their last gulps of beer and then gave Tifa their friendly and casual wink goodbye each, and then, once the bar was finally to themselves again, Tifa began to clear down the tables.

All the while Cloud sat calmly. But when the last customer shut the bar's door behind him the loud sound jerked him out of his calmness and he looked down at the jagged, hard pencil line that had verred and bisected a large section of the Junon region only an hour or so before. He remembered the distraction that had caused it, the strange feeling of annoyance, suspicion and anger, and the increasingly intense need to become aggressive towards every other man in the room. The muscles of his back twinged a little as he re-lived the strong physical reaction of his body.

_I guess... I just don't like it when other men look at her_.


	7. Hot Feet

**Chapter 7**

**~ Hot Feet ~**

The breeze was hot on his neck, caressing around his shoulders and barely stirring the blond spikes on his head. The sea lapped the sand's edge in the distance, and he felt lulled further into the unfamiliar feeling of relaxation. Sighing, he fell back into the sand and felt himself begin to fall asleep.

This was bliss. This was what a holiday felt like.

When Marlene and Denzel had thrown themselves at him, begging him to take some time off, Tifa had simply stood in the distance and not said a word, smiling gently to herself. He knew what she was like; she wasn't going to plead and beg him herself, but in her demure way she was hoping he would take time off too. And in his own little way, he was glad they'd jumped and jeered and shouted until he had felt he had to say yes. Tifa had beamed at him.

Barrett was also more organised than he thought. He'd booked the holiday well in advanced, a few weeks before the huge hoards of tourists would inevitably erupt onto the coast, ensuring all chances of a peaceful holiday.

"We're off to play in the sea, okay?" Denzel shouted from behind him, ploughing through Marlene's sand castles to rush to the water.

"Denzel! I spent ages building those!" Marlene huffed.

"Oh no you don't! Where's your sunblock?" Tifa called after him.

Denzel came to a slow halt on the golden sand, sighed his head in resignation, and then began to mope back up the beach.

Barrett straightened up his huge body and did Marlene's back. Cloud was startled when a bottle of sunblock was suddenly shoved underneath his nose by a disgruntled young boy with shaggy brown hair and a look of urgency on his face. Cloud nodded and obliged.

As the children ploughed into the water's edge moments later Cloud's head scanned along the beach. His eyes eventually came to where Barrett had laid back down onto his beach towel. His dark skin was glistening in the sunlight, showing off his huge muscles. His swimming briefs were showing off... a little more than Cloud wanted to see, and he turned away again.

Tifa caught sight of the redness spreading across his shoulders. "Cloud, you're burning up."

He turned to face her, sunning his face from the sun. "No, it's okay. I always go red on my shoulders."

"That's because you never wear sunblock!" she laughed.

Before he could protest she'd moved behind him with a bottle of high factor sunblock and had begun to smooth it over his back. The warm touch of her fingers made him sit up straighter, and his jaw locked slightly.

"You're setting a poor example for them, especially Denzel," she said nodding at the two blobs of brown and pink splashing in the blue ripples of the sea.

He didn't protest.

As her fingers moved further up his back and along his spine he forced himself to relax. There was no reason for him to feel this tense when it was just Tifa, she certainly wasn't a threat or danger to him. But when her fingertips found his shoulder blades the movement of her hands slowed. He felt the soft edges of her thumbs moving slower and slower, dragging lightly over every single muscle fibre with a slight pressure as if she was examining him, sending little sparks up and down his neck.

She suddenly pulled her fingers away and cleared her throat. He turned to glance at her and she was smiling in her sweet way, looking as normal as ever, if a little red. It was probably from the sun. Maybe he'd imagined it.

"Your turn," he said in his deep tone.

For a moment she seemed almost hesitant.

"Oh... sure. I can't be setting a bad example too, can I?" she laughed softly.

He did as she had, smoothing his hands up, down and over the curves her back, and tracing along her spine. He finished at her neck and then noticed that she'd picked up a book while he'd been rubbing in the cream. She was engrossed in it.

"What are you reading?" He had let his curiosity get the better of him.

"Pride and Prejudice," she said, waving the book's cover briefly in front of his eyes.

He sighed a little inside.

_Trust Tifa to read something so intelligent and political-sounding on her holiday._

She turned back to her book, her eyes moving slowly and methodically to the bottom of the page. She then turned the page to look at the next page, her eyes then moving to the bottom of that page and so on. In between each page turn she would take a small breath through her partially open lips and start the whole process again. It continued for several minutes.

"Tifa?"

She finally looked up from her book.

"You knew about this holiday way before me, didn't you?"

She bit her lip for a moment. "Maybe."

"Why didn't you tell me about it sooner?"

"I wasn't sure if..." She trailed off. It made him frustrated.

"...I'd come?"

"I know you don't like taking time off."

She smiled with that gentle smile of hers and he could only continue to look back at her. The sunshine brightened a little and the heat on both their faces increased to the point where he thought he was burning up again. Her eyes were majestic in the side-light glow of the sun; a thick red honey he couldn't tear himself away from while the deep brown background melted and merged under the beautiful red highlights slow dancing about in her eyes, bathed in the golden sunlight. He was mesmerised.

"Hey!"

Their heads snapped away from each other. Barrett was standing over them with a couple of bottles of water, a funny expression on his face.

"Thank you, Barrett," Tifa thanked as he handed her a bottle.

He was less animated as he gave a bottle to Cloud, holding it out just within a comfortable reach. Cloud cautiously took it and gave a gentle nod as a "thank you". Barrett merely made some kind of grunt and sat back down on his spot in the sand.

Tifa made a sudden gasp beside him. "Come on, let's go in the sea."

Marlene and Denzel had been waving and shouting at them.

She was dragging him up by his wrist before he could make a decision, and running towards the water. He began to run after her.

"Strife," he heard a voice growl behind him.

He turned round to face Barrett who was now lounging in the hot sun again.

"Keep your hands to yourself," he said flatly.

Cloud's eyebrow cocked a little as he began to run back towards the water. He didn't see what Barrett was getting so worked up about. It was only Tifa, after all.

As he approached the water at a fast jog he spotted the remains of a run down building that had been turned into a platform, sitting a dozen or so metres above the sea, a few hundred yards to his right.

_Perfect._

To the bewilderment of Marlene and Denzel Cloud took a sharp turn and began to run towards the gray slab of concrete instead of them.

"Tifa, what's Cloud doing?" Marlene asked dumbfounded. Tifa couldn't reply.

Suddenly he was throwing himself off the platform and moulding his body into an eagle shape ready to thunder effortlessly into the water's surface. A crash thundered about his ears until he found himself deep under the water, bubbles of trapped air rushing past his face, down his tummy, over his legs and to the tips of his toes. The cooler, deeper salty water felt good against his skin and he lingered in the wild and exhilarating sensation for a moment. Opening his eyes he began to look through the murk with his mako-enhanced vision. It didn't take him long to spot Marlene's pink swimsuit, Denzel's scuffed up knees and Tifa's... lovely legs.

When he emerged he felt a slight stinging around his forehead, the top of his chest and thighs, but he ignored it. As he looked around for Denzel he saw him admiring the great height he'd just seen Cloud dive from. Marlene was giggling and trying to get his attention. Tifa was turned away from him and waving to Barrett on the beach, beckoning him to come in for a swim. The smooth curves of her chest and waist, covered only by the thin fabric of her bikini, was eclipsing the stinging white brightness of sunlight reflecting off the glass windows of the shops and apartments back on shore, drawing his attention to the perfect, voluptuous outline of her figure.

"Um... Cloud?"

He looked down to see Marlene prodding him in the side. She hastily began to move the back of her left hand underneath her nose in a sweeping motion.

A little confused, Cloud mimicked her and then found that something wet and thicker and stickier than water was smearing onto the back of his hand. It was blood.

He began to laugh at himself. He'd heard about the stories of young men getting nosebleeds in the presence of a very attractive woman, but this was ridiculous. He had always assumed it never really happened, and it was only an urban myth.

Out of the corner of his eye he spotted Tifa walking towards him through the water, obviously having given up on coaxing Barrett into the water.

She gasped. "Oh, Cloud, what have you done?"

He stood there like a lemon.

"It must have been the angle you took coming into the water," she prodded him lightly.

_Oh... well I guess it could have been that too._

"Pinch your nose and hold your head up."

He looked at her dubiously. She sighed.

"Pinch your nose," she said taking his hand and positioning it over the bridge of his nose, "And hold your head up," she continued, pushing his head back by pressing lightly on his jaw with her index finger.

He felt like the preschooler with the runny nosebleeds again.

Time went buy as the seagulls cooed overhead, the waves of the sea grew, crashed and then massaged themselves over and up the populated sands of the beach before being sucked back in again. The sun was gleaming into the side of his eyes, dazing him a little. He then felt a gentle pull on the arm holding his nose and he looked back down to see little people playing in the water further ahead, and then to see Tifa looking curiously at him.

The nosebleed had stopped.

He looked at her like a puppy, a big kid, a something that was adorable and she almost wanted to mother him for a moment. She had been unaware of the low grumble of an engine spurring through the water just meters away, getting closer, and closer, and closer... The sea suddenly rushed past her skin, soaked her hair and stung her eyes. She shut them tight. The sea hung heavy around her, enveloping her, pulling on her this way and that with the undercurrent tide. She was about to kick back to the surface when a powerful grip tore her from the watery underworld and threw her back into the warm sun and hot breeze of the Costa del Sol. With a small gasp she realised that she was trapped between two muscular arms and a broad, solid, masculine chest. She felt faint as her head rushed from suddeness of the past few seconds. Gradually she became more aware of the rest of her body as she began to recognise that scent, that presence that was Cloud, clinging her to him like a clam. She then became unbearably aware of the thin, wet fabric that was hardly separating them and how his strong thigh was pressing against her own. She could feel the ridges of his six pack tight against her tummy.

The motherly feeling had certainly gone.

His grip released her gently, and his hands fell by his sides, except for one arm which still held itself protectively a few centimetres from her waist.

"Idiot can't drive that thing," he muttered angrily under his breath.

She looked up to find him staring after a jet ski now far in the distance, going irresponsibly fast. It took him a while to boil over his anger and turn his attention back to her.

"Are you okay?"

She nodded shyly and then swam forward back into the water to find Marlene, leaving him where he was. Being up against him like that had rendered her unable to breath, let alone speak.

"Denzel! Don't!" Marlene was yelling.

Both the adults turned their attention to where she was shouting and spotted Denzel at the edge of the concrete platform Cloud had dived off not long before.

"If Cloud can do it, I can do it too!" Denzel yelled back defiantly and ran to the end of the platform which was embedded in the beach's sand to begin his run up.

"No, Denzel!" Tifa shouted. She turned her attention to Cloud who was looking on with a contorted expression, as if he was hard at work, calculating what to do. "Tell him not to, Cloud. He'll listen to you."

But it was too late. Denzel dug his heel hard in the sand and began to run, run like his life depended on it, across the hot concrete. He was quickly approaching the edge. Cloud suddenly reacted and dived into the water to trudgen towards the platform.

Denzel launched himself high into the air above the water and let out a cry of joy and exhilaration. He was so caught up in his mid-triumph that he forgot to align his body properly for entry into the water - but then he'd never known how, he was just going to copy what Cloud had done - and he hit the water in a loud crash, in a twisted ball of limbs.

Cloud reached him first and pulled him from underwater to the surface. He was unconscious. He carried him, swimming and wading back to the shore and then laid him across the sand of the beach. Onlookers had began to gather over, unsure of what to do. Cloud was about to relive his soldier training and run back through CPR when a lifeguard broke through the crowd, pushing him aside.

When Denzel finally came round to everyones relief he insisted he was fine. He wanted to play in the sea some more, and he couldn't understand why the adults and poor Marlene looked so exhausted. Barrett came over hurriedly to see if Denzel was okay and gave the same a big sigh everyone else had. The quick and unanimous decision, except for that of Denzel, was to go back to the cabin.

***

Cloud watched as Marlene kept pulling Denzel back to relax on the sofa while Tifa sat in the middle of them laughing softly, trying to coax them both to relax. It made him feel happy and he couldn't quite identify why. Maybe it was because they were his family; they were his to protect and he had succeeded today, twice even. It made him feel ten times the man he was. _They_ made him feel ten times the man he was.

They all ate dinner on the sofas opposite the TV as they watched some of the films Denzel and Marlene had rented from a local shop. Tifa hadn't cooked, Barrett and Cloud had insisted on it. Luckily for Cloud Barrett could cook a decent meal.

Marlene was sat underneath one of Barrett's large arms, hugging a creamy felt blanket. Her eyes were beginning to close. On the opposite sofa Denzel was fast asleep against Tifa's side, who was sitting next to Cloud. She was beginning to doze off too with occasional lulls of her head to one side, and then the other, before she'd suddenly wake herself up again with a start. It was when Tifa's head hit his shoulder like a soft pillow and stayed there that Cloud realised she had finally fallen asleep. She looked peaceful.

"Cloud..." she uttered dreamily in her sleep and Barrett looked round from the TV. She had lightly gripped the fabric of Cloud's shirt that came over his bicep and snuggled into his shoulder, hiding her face slightly from view. Barrett's face softened, and then he made an expression crossed between an "Aw" and a smirk. He gave Cloud a nod and Cloud nodded back. They'd give them all a few more minutes, but it looked like it was time for bed.

He carefully moved from underneath Tifa's grip and eased her sleeping form to spread across the rest of the sofa's cusions. Then he gently ruffled Denzel's hair to wake him up enough to move and get himself to bed. Barrett had carried Marlene into the room that she was sharing with Tifa while she had slept soundlessly in his arms, undisturbed.

_One more left._

He bent down beside the sofa and paused while he tried to work out how deeply asleep Tifa was. But he felt he would feel guilty waking her up either way when she looked so calm, a world away from the busyness and stresses of Seventh Heaven on a typical evening. And so he sighed, sliding his hands underneath her back and shoulders to prepare to lift her. It was then her eyes began to laze open. She blinked and then murmured as she slowly propped herself up onto her hands.

He withdrew his own hands onto his knees as his gaze moved to her face. She stifled a yawn behind her hands and pulled herself upright on the chair, forcing her feet onto the carpet of the floor. Her eyes were beautiful against the dark red of the sofa, that was enhanced by the warm mahogany wood of the walls and fireplace, the soft ivory cream of the carpet, and the fire crackling in the corner of his eye, throwing shadows over a side of the room he could not see. As he looked even longer at the dark hair falling leisurely over her shoulders, the dark contrast offered by her slender eyebrows and long, thick eyelashes and the redness of her lips, they began to stand out to him as if someone had suddenly turned up the color saturation of his vision.

She turned her peaceful eyes towards him.

"I think I'm tired," she murmured.

He held out his hand to pull her up.

"Time for bed," he smiled gently.

She smirked in her tired way and let him pull her up. She faced him.

"Good night, Cloud."

"Good night, Tifa," he returned and watched her walk away, holding her arms loosely around herself as she shuffled into her and Marlene's bedroom and shut the door, just before stifling another of her cute little yawns.

He found himself smiling as he stood in the warm centre of the room, the fire slipping away into the depths of its ashes in the fireplace. He then realised he was scratching the back of his head, an old nervous habit. He shook it off, but his lips remained curved slightly upwards.

_I had a great day, Tifa._

* * *

**Author's Note**:_ Red honey is very very real and very very delicious. Also a thumbs-up to all who recognised Pride and Prejudice as one of thee most famous and favorited romance novels ever in English Literature. (So much for Cloud's pre-judgement)! And I hope you all enjoyed this one. I enjoyed writing it (as always). I apologise for the lateness, we switched Internet providers half-way through the week and I had no connection for a few days. But you know what? I hope you all enjoy the next chapter even more...  
_


	8. One Hundred Minutes of Nightmare

**Chapter 8**

**~ One Hundred Minutes of Nightmare ~**_  
_

It dug, and snarled and ripped at the centre of his stomach, burned through his eyes and down his spinal chord. He had no air to cry out with. He had no motivation to allow himself to be heard. The plain landscape suddenly vaulted into full view underneath his feet. The pain numbed out into the background.

He straightened his back and glanced over the surroundings. It was as if a giant hand had taken a huge brush of watery paint and sloshed it this way and that until it made a coherent mess of blues, greens and stark whites. Cloud wanted to turn down the brightness.

He began to run. The earth underneath his feet became extremely real. He felt the squelching of water trying to escape into his boots as he brought one foot in front of the other. When he looked down he saw the browny-reds he churned up under his heels and toes.

There was a looming gray in the distance. He suddenly called out a name, but he didn't understand the voice. He called out again and this time the distant gray twisted violently into a rocky mound of dirt, broken and lethal fallen down trees and dead vegetation hanging from its contours and rugged edges.

He turned around quickly. The watercolour landscape had vanished into a void of black. There was a sweet and sickly taste of something clinging to the inside of his throat. He ran on ahead.

He tore through the dying stench of rot and damp and wormy earth. His hands were bleeding from fighting against the sheering of rocks and knives of bark protruding from tree branches.

She lay there, at the top of a large ridge, just beyond his full view. She was lying over the only thing still alive in the barren landscape, a peaceful little stream of baby blue meandering its way down the mountainside; a flowing, endless, silky ribbon of water.

There were no longer any trees, any dirt, any earth, any rotting this, any stench of that, any nothing. There was just the cold and sharp feel of steely rock against his skin. He walked up to her motionless form.

"Tifa?"

She didn't stir. He bent down to pick her up, sliding his arms underneath her.

The ground caved and split underneath his feet. The non-existent sky turned a bloodcurdling red. He thought he had gone blind and tried to hold her to him more fervently, hoping to at least protect her. But his hands were slipping, she was slipping away, the earth was moving from underneath his feet.

He had failed.

The baby blue stream turned into a menacing black fountain of tar. His vision came and went in blinding flashes of light. She was beginning to wilt into the foreground, deteriorating into the ridge itself, turning a cold shade of gray, turning into the very stone on which she was lying. He felt himself swept away, drowning, clawing at the thick currents sucking him under.

"You're late..." a soft voice whispered in his ear.

He was thrown under.

"TIFA!"

***

She sat up with a fierce jolt. The clock beside her bed read two thirty in the morning. The room was clammy and cold and there was a slight draft seeping in through her windowpane.

That's when she heard the scream.

"Cloud?"

She had swiftly torn herself from her bed covers and cautiously opened the door to Cloud's room. He was lying on his bed, covering his face with his hands, breathing heavily in his chest. She looked across the landing to check the children hadn't got up and then closed the door behind her. She sat beside Cloud on the bed.

"Another nightmare?"

"Yeah."

He took his hands away from his face and she found to her relief that he simply looked stoic and not hysterical. But then he always looked that way when she came to check on him. She also knew not to ask what his dreams were about anymore. They both had their nightmares.

She began to lift herself up from his bed when he suddenly sat up.

"Stay here."

For a moment she thought someone else had spoken.

"What for?"

"Sleep here. I want to know you're safe."

His reply was strong and unwavering. He was looking straight ahead at the opposite wall with the same stoic expression on his face as when she'd found him. She had trouble removing her gaze as well as her puzzlement.

He turned towards her and nodded in his quiet yet overpowering way and she found herself moving under his covers, positioning herself onto her side. Her silk nightgown was still draped around her but she didn't think to remove it.

She felt him sink back into the bed next to her, a respectable distance being maintained between them even when he shifted a little closer to her back. She lay there a while, finding his presence both comforting and unnerving at the same time. Her breaths were shallow.

When she finally looked over her shoulder he was sleeping soundlessly. His blond spikes were bending softly against his pillow and one of his hands was relaxed in front of his face, stealing a portion of an adorable image Tifa knew she wouldn't forget for a while.

Eventually the warmth of another nearby and her own sleepiness overcame her, she fell into a deep sleep.

***

It was morning. The sun was cracking through the curtains and falling across Tifa's dark eyelashes. She felt warmth and comfort and safety as if she was coming out of one pleasant dream and into another. She turned her head slightly as she gradually awoke and then became increasingly aware of something long and solid like a pipe lying underneath her neck and across her shoulders. It felt warm. It felt human.

There was a small pressure on her tummy that suddenly came and went away again, sending a sensitive feeling through her navel. Opening her eyes half-way her facial expression then froze. The respectable distance between her and Cloud had been breached. She was lying almost right up against him, half her nightgown still in the spot she had fallen asleep in, the other half about her arms and shoulders trapped between herself and the strong arm that was now underneath her.

She felt the small pressure again. She looked down and saw Cloud's other arm was no longer curled up by his face as it had been when she had fallen asleep, and instead it now fell down from his shoulder, relaxed to form a bridge between them, and his hand was draped across her waist, just under the covers, resting gently on the silky fabric of her top. His fingers were curled reflexively inwards, relaxed. He had been moving his thumb in his sleep.

She looked back up to Cloud's face. His eyelashes were almost white and transparent in the sunlight. He looked angelic. She would not have believed he was real if it wasn't for the very human, though faint, scar struck through his left eyebrow.

She became aware of the feel his breath on the exposed flesh of her collar bone.

Half-awake, half-dreaming, she still felt as if she had never really woken up. A great sense of security had come over her. She could have curled up into the nook of his neck, the broadness of his chest and the strength of his arms and torso and slept their for eternity. Subconsciously she moved a little closer; although there wasn't much of a gap to close in the first place. His right hand then fell gently round the curve of her waist and further beneath the covers, making their position even more like an embrace than before.

Her eyes travelled across his eyebrows, past his blond eyelashes, over the shape of his nose and down to his not thick, but not thin, pink lips that were relaxed in his unmoving and quiet state. Something knotted tightly in her chest and all the way down to her toes. She felt her lips becoming redder and her cheeks dusting with various shades of pink. Her eyes began to close. She suddenly felt a tug at her side and a movement under her neck and he was pulling her closer into his shelter in his sleep. Her hair dragged onto his pillow. His breath brushed onto the curves of her lips. The tips of their noses were about to touch.

_If I just inch a little closer... If I just let my lips touch his..._

She suddenly turned her head away with a gasp. Her hands clasped over her mouth.

_What on Gaia am I thinking?_

She shook her head gently and turned back to look at him. He was still sleeping, undisturbed. The clock on his bedside table read six thirty in the morning. It was time to get up.

Slowly she began to remove her weight from his arm which had stretched itself all the way round her shoulders. He made a slight groan as her warmth and weight went from him, but he remained sleeping, his exposed arms curling back a little towards the covers. She tucked the sheets back over him.

She was about to leave when the knotting in her chest arose again and she couldn't help turning round to look at him. He looked almost forlorn in the way his eyebrows had knitted tightly. His outstretched arms and now empty hands had dragged themselves back towards the centre of the bed as if he was trying to capture something in slow-motion.

She smiled.

"Just maybe if things keep going the way they are... " she continued to smile, her thoughts becoming even shy to her as she turned them over in her head, "I won't have to turn away next time."

With a small blush she closed the door gently behind her.


	9. Running Out of Ragtime

**Author's Note: **_You might have to read this twice... what's happening isn't immediately obvious at first.  
_

_Oh, and your "mother's son-in-law" is your husband.  
_

* * *

**Chapter 9**

**~ Running Out of Ragtime ~  
**

Cloud was polishing off the freshly washed rims of his bike's wheels when a strange sound began emanating from radio in the bar. The bizarre change in background music wafted into the garage and into his ears. He stared blankly at the open door as he unintentionally wiped grease across his forehead in puzzlement. After a moment or so the resemblance of a smile played across his face and he started to approach the door to the bar.

Denzel and Marlene were upstairs playing checkers like Tifa had taught them, since the temperature outside was too hot to go out to play. Marlene was laughing, throwing a piece at Denzel after having "taken it out" when the strange sound floated into their bedroom too. They stopped their game and exchanged glances.

"I've only heard that kind of music in old-fashioned Technicolor films," Denzel said bewildered.

Marlene simply shrugged. "Tifa's full of surprises."

They both smirked affectionately and returned to their board game.

Cloud opened the door and watched Tifa as she hummed in time to the music and lifted bottles of liquor from the top shelf to the bar for dusting. She kept sneezing or holding herself mid-sneeze as the dust tickled her nose.

"What are you listening to?"

She was caught off guard. Cloud was leaning against the wall just before the staircase, his head cocked, looking a little amused, a small smile tugging on his lips.

A woman with a deep and husky voice began to sing from the radio's little speakers amongst the warm hum and slight fuzzing of an assortment of jazzy instruments:

_You don't have to have a hanker, be a broker or banker._

"It's jazz hour," she explained. His facial expression didn't change. "This is _Billie Holiday_. You know, the famous jazz singer?"

_Just simply be..._

His expression grew blank. It was the amusement playing around in his eyes that made her shy away.

_...my mother's son-in-law._

"Mom used to listen to this kind of stuff over and over again and fall asleep when my dad wasn't around."

_Needn't even think of trying..._

Her sudden taste for very old sounding jazz now made a little more sense to him.

_...be a mighty social lion._

"Nostalgia?"

She nodded.

_Sipping tea if you will be... my mother's son-in-law._

His thoughts began to stir as he entered a reminiscence of his own. He recalled the kind face, blond locks and favorite pastel orange dress of his own mother. He realised he'd nearly forgotten what she looked like. For a moment he felt quite sad.

"Say, Tifa, where do you think you'd be if Nibelheim was never burnt down?"

_Ain't got the least desire,  
to set the world on fire._

She smiled to herself. "Oh, I don't know. I'd probably still be there giving mountain tours, or helping dad by doing his cooking occasionally - especially since he was so useless when mom died. Maybe I'd have a house of my own, have my own little business, maybe I'd have even got a degree if I'd fancied it," she was saying wistfully. "Maybe I'd even have met a husband or something," she laughed. As she listened to what she was saying she felt ridiculous and silly. That life was far away in the ashes of a madman's torrent now. What's more, Cloud was probably thinking she was as silly as she was.

_Just wish you'd make it proper,  
to call my old man papa._

He also laughed although it seemed a little nervous. She looked up.

"A husband at twenty-three? You're still young."

His anxiety was making her cheeks color slightly. What a silly reaction to have.

"Maybe, but you remember country life? Less time to shop," she joked.

_You don't have to sing like bledsoe,  
you can tell the world I said so._

"He'd have to be strong and stubborn to handle you, Tifa."

"I suppose so," she shrugged off. The coloring of her cheeks was still embarrassingly evident and she had to turn her back to him, pretending to assort the bottles scatted across the bar to hide it.

_Can't you see you've got to be..._

"As well as protect you," he finished.

_...my mother's son-in-law._

The song cut out in the brisk eruption of jazzy solos and the soft crash of symbols. A casual and almost lethargic sounding voice oozed into the room announcing something, "A little more bluesy". The soft clamour of piano keys, a brushing of a symbol somewhere in the distance and the underlying bass of a stringed instrument softened the atmosphere. Tifa nearly sneezed again as she chucked her polishing cloth aside.

_Why was I born? Why am I living...?_

A thought came over Cloud as he watched Tifa, and he traced back over the topic they had been discussing only moments before. "I've been thinking..."

She turned her shoulders to look at him.

"Maybe I should start taking up more deliveries during the day."

He was now cross-armed and looking at the bar surface with a serious expression on his face. He couldn't see the hurt in Tifa's wide, brown eyes.

_What do I get? What am I giving?_

"What makes you say that, Cloud?" She was fighting to keep her voice steady. The change in his tone had been so sudden.

A few moments passed and he remained silent.

_Why do I wait for things I dare not hope for?_

"Perhaps..." he began. "Perhaps it's best if I'm not in the bar so much anyway."

She took a sharp but silent inhale of breath. Was it something she'd said?

_What can I hope for? I wish I knew._

"You'd be missed. Denzel and Marlene love it when you're home. Your return is all they talk about when you've been away." She paused, clasping and unclasping the neck of a bottle of gin under her fingertips. "I also like it when you're home."

_Why do I try to draw you near me?_

"I know, but at least for a bit. I have a lot of work lined up." He then looked up and his face brightened a little. "Besides, I know you can't miss me that much when I'm gone."

She had to blink her gaze away from his. He was so wrong.

_Why do I cry? You never hear me._

"I'll bring you all sorts of things back, like all those spices you said you were running out of." But then he drew back and frowned slightly. He looked like he was thumbing over something in his mind. "Although, maybe I won't have so much time."

Tifa could feel the corners of her eyes beginning to feel heavy, and her composure threatening to falter. Whether it was a feeling of frustration, anger, or hurt she was experiencing, or simply a horrible combination of all three, she wasn't sure, but all the same time she knew it wasn't going to come to surface. She wouldn't let it. She didn't have the energy left to deal with the aftereffects, to deal with the children possibly overhearing, to deal with him and his sudden change in demeanour.

_I'm a poor fool, but what can I do?_

"I better start getting ready. I can still make a few more deliveries today," he said absent-mindedly and removed himself from the wall he'd been leaning on. She watched him as he strode back into the garage, obviously completely unaware of the effect he'd just had on her. It felt like he'd ripped her heart from her chest and strewn it all over the light fixtures. The rest of her had flown wildly into the currents of some far away wind. Her mind was all that remained, but it was empty.

The door closed behind him and the bar went completely still. There was just the sound of a single water droplet hitting the metal surface of the sink. The tap wasn't on.

_Oh baby... why was I born to love you?_

The song gradually eased out in her head, zooming down to a gnat in the far reaches of the room where she no longer noticed it, and her head slid down her shoulders until her hair was just above the thin film of water clinging to the metallic bottom of the sink.

She thought back to when he'd had geostigma and never told her. She thought back to when he'd suddenly left the house and she'd had no idea why. She dimly remembered being alone and hurting, slowly giving up on him ever coming back to her and the kids, yet forcing herself to hold on.

She remembered who she thought Cloud no longer was.

"You're never going to change, are you?"

There was the drip, drip, drip of more tiny droplets into the sink. The room couldn't answer her.

She looked up slowly and stared through the foggy insecurities of the pane of glass of her own mind.

_Maybe I should just... move on._


	10. Good Intentions

**Chapter 10**

**~ Good Intentions ~**

Day in, day out, it seemed Cloud had been true to his word. He wasn't gone altogether, not at all, but he was around less. She talked to him less.

Tifa scratched behind her ear and down her neck in annoyance with the stove. Everything was back to... normal? She tossed some chips angrily into the baking tray. No, it wasn't back to the way things had been because she thought they had been getting closer and closer and then he'd backed out, or something. Impatiently she kicked the oven door shut.

She sighed. She just had to stop thinking about it.

Then her phone went off.

Tifa's phone had been going off a lot lately.

Cloud sat in his office chair glancing over the missed calls and deliveries he now had lined up as a result which had been written in Tifa's elegant handwriting in his notepad. He was paying attention to the words with his eyes, but his ears were elsewhere. Tifa was giggling, in that quiet, modest way that he found pretty cute; only he hadn't been the one who had caused it, and so the joy from hearing it disappeared like the removal of sugar from chocolate.

He gave up pretending to read through the deliveries and ran a hand through his blond spikes. Her phone went off again but this time without the jingling of a mono-dimensional series of musical notes which had been irritating him ever since he'd got back, or more extensively, every time he'd got back over the past week. Thank goodness she'd turned it on silent.

But then, why were the vibrations still reaching his ears? And why was he still unable to stop himself from straining to hear every single sound Tifa made as a result?

He sighed. He was just kidding himself. He knew the reason by now, and there was no point in pretending to himself otherwise any more. It was probably Yuffie anyway, and that soothed his mind.

Marlene had been shuffling up slowly to Cloud's chair from the doorway. He was still lost in thought.

"Cloud, Tifa's been looking really happy lately."

He could only half-hear Marlene talking beside his chair.

"She looks like the girls in the films... falling in love... Is it something to do with you?"

It took him a while to registered what she'd just said. He snapped suddenly out of his daze.

"What?"

Marlene shrunk underneath him. He'd almost raised his voice.

He drew back in his chair and shook his head lightly. "Sorry, Marlene," he said with a caring smile.

She gave a meek smile back. She could tell he was tired. "Be careful, Cloud," and she trotted out of the room.

He stared after her and then looked back at the list of jobs on his desk. He had a lot to sort out, routes to plan, invoices to prepare. Taking up more jobs he had forgotten also meant more paperwork. It also meant he felt more tired. The last time he'd slept at all well had been that night when Tifa had slept by his side, and that had been weeks ago now.

Tifa's phone vibrated again in the depths of the kitchen, his mako-enhanced hearing catching the hum of amusement that erupted in her throat.

_Wait. What did Marlene just say to me?_

He stood up suddenly from his chair. He had decided he was hungry.

When he came downstairs he headed straight into the kitchen and began to dig around in the fridge, pretending not to notice Tifa in the far corner of the room.

There was a large squelching growl from his stomach. He really was hungry.

"Hungry?"

He barely turned as he recognised Tifa's voice. Moving around him, she reached into the fridge from behind his back, ducking under his shoulder. She pulled out eggs, ham, cheese and a secret ingredient she stored in a petite jar. He didn't have time to nod. He didn't have time to move out of the way either. She gracefully ducked out from underneath him again anyway.

"I'll cook you something," she said cheerfully.

"You're in a good mood," he stated. He knew he was stating the obvious.

"Am I usually in a bad mood?" she hummed out loud, dragging out one of the frying pans from a cupboard.

As he observed her light movements and airy smile he suddenly didn't feel like saying any more.

"Let me know when it's ready."

He left the room.

It was night time, and Cloud for once had felt the impulse to stay at home. Tifa was working at the bar, the children were on the bar floor helping her and he was casually walking around in the kitchen keeping an eye on some food in the oven Marlene had insisted he had in order to make sure it wouldn't burn. It had been a very convenient request. He had noticed Tifa had left her phone in the kitchen earlier.

The mobile rang. The surface gave off an incensed growl as it shook the kitchen's smooth counter top across from him. His hands were merely centimetres away. He could feel the vibrations through his fingertips. He knew it was a phone call this time, it had been ringing for too long to just be a text. He wasn't going to answer it though. He knew he really wasn't going to answer it. He would just look at the missed call message on the screen once it stopped ringing. It stopped ringing, and then it rang again almost instantly to aggravate him. He lost patience and finally snatched at the little black phone, pushing his thumb firmly into the answer button. Holding the speaker cautiously against his ear, a deep male voice then issued into his ears:

"Tifa?"

"No," Cloud replied stiltedly.

"Oh, hey, a guy." The voice laughed.

"She's working right now," Cloud stated flatly.

"Oh. You must be Cloud."

Cloud didn't reply.

"I've heard a lot about you."

There was a crunching sound coming from the speakers as if he was eating something.

"I'll get her to call you back."

"Thanks, Cloud. I appreciate it." He hung up.

"Is something up?" Tifa had peered round the door to check on him.

Everything had become a little slow in Cloud's mind; though as he heard Tifa's voice he abruptly snapped out of it. Before she had come in he had been conscious enough to lower her mobile by his left side so that now she couldn't see it, and he was grateful she couldn't, for he wouldn't know how to explain that he'd just answered a private call to her phone.

"Yeah, I'm fine. Nothing has burnt yet."

She studied him a little longer with her beautiful brown eyes and then gently removed her gaze, turning herself, ready to rejoin the atmosphere of the bar.

"As long as you're sure, Cloud." Her tone had been cautious and patient. She walked out.

A few days passed, and nothing had changed.

It was late afternoon and the rooms were a slight orange glow. The children were at school and would be back home within the hour. Cloud had made an effort to be back for a bit just for that. Throwing off his dusty boots in the garage he made his way up the stairs. He could smell fresh laundry all through the landing, and he instantly knew Tifa must be changing the beds. He removed his armor and gloves in his room before making his way to the children's bedroom down the hall.

There she was with her long dark hair and dark clothing, yet unmistakably bright smile and eyes. Tifa raised an eyebrow at him when she noticed him in the doorway and he stepped forward to be a little closer to her.

"Everything okay?" she asked cautiously as she unfolded a freshly ironed bedsheet.

"Yeah," he replied briefly, and then folded his arms loosely and gazed out at the warm glowing sunlight oozing through the window. He had been wondering if he had missed something over the past few weeks, the cocky male voice he'd heard on the other end of her phone just the other day not having done his mind any favors, but then as he stood there, with nothing but rays of orange-yellow in between Tifa and himself, he felt he was filtering out a kind of paranoia, something he felt he shouldn't be so worried about. He began to relax.

They remained like that for a few more moments with only the faint hum of car engines, the people living in their own little worlds outside the window and the ruffling sounds of sheets being stripped from a bed to fill the quiet. Then Tifa began to laugh.

Cloud turned to her. "What?"

"Are you going to help me or just stand there gazing into nothing?" she teased.

He became a little flustered at how rude he was being and held out a hand to help. She took one of Denzel's dirty pillows and threw it at him. He smiled sheepishly as he caught it and she shook her head lightly in amusement. After a while her amusement faded and she stretched a small smile across her lips as she thought about what she really wanted to ask him, or at least tip toe around with still the chance of half an answer.

"How's work?"

Cloud looked up, caught in concentration on changing the pillow cover. "It's fine. I'm getting there."

"Getting where?" she asked with a slight crease in her eyebrows.

"Targets I have to reach."

"You have targets?" Cloud wasn't sure whether to enjoy the mixture of surprise and impression on Tifa's face.

"Kind of." Finishing changing Denzel's pillowcase he placed it back on the bed and took up Marlene's. "Not much longer and I can get another upgrade to Fenrir's engine," he added.

"Ah."

After his brief practice on Denzel's pillow he finished changing Marlene's quickly and placed it back on the bed. He stepped forward to offer a hand with the leftover ironed covers that he knew needed to be folded up in order to go into the cupboard. She offered him the corners of a large sheet so that they could fold it together.

"You're home earlier than normal today..." She trailed off as they both leaned forward, their fingertips touching as he held his corners of the sheet up to hers and she carefully took them from him.

"I have a break in between deliveries," he replied, taking up the second set of corners and feeding them back into her hands deliberately in a way so that their fingers would have touch for a longer amount of time, for another folding over. He watched as curve of her cheeks, and the tips of her ears turned slightly pink as he did so.

Now that the sheet was a more manageable size she folded the rest herself and placed it into a pile on a nearby chair. Then she paused.

"Your turn." She tossed him the next sheet.

She watched as he fumbled to make tail and end of the sheets, and then she suddenly felt very cruel.

"Here." Her well-trained hands found one of the corners and handed it to him and they attempted to sort out the mad tangle Cloud had made of the sheet in between them.

Every more frequent accidental brush and hit of their hands, of their arms, of their fingers was starting to annoy her. They were tiny little things, she had to get over Cloud, and yet she felt herself blushing increasingly every time it happened. She had to distract herself.

"You're not very good at this, are you?" Her tone had been playful but slightly harsh.

Cloud looked down as the sheet suddenly returned to the neat way it should have turned out when he started.

"No, I guess not," he chuckled.

His small laugh had made her laugh as well, and then his hands reached out to the sides of the sheet, and hers did the same in the same moment, and then his hands clasped over her fingers. They both froze. The very thing she had been trying to avoid, and Cloud had been trying not quite to do, had happened, and it was awkward. Tifa turned her head up to diffuse the awkward tension, and he turned his head down in turn, and then their lips touched. It felt like a lifetime.

They drew back suddenly from each other. The shock in his eyes was reflected in hers.

"We're home!" Marlene called.

Who had initiated the kiss?

"Look, Cloud's home!" Denzel chirped from downstairs.

Both looked away instantly. Cloud promptly let go of the sheet so that Tifa could move her fingers away.

He made a pathetic attempt to clear his throat. "Do you need any more help?"

She also made a pathetic attempt to clear her throat. "No, it's fine. Go greet them."

Ruffling the spikes on the back of his neck Cloud moved out of the room. Tifa remained where she was, unable to stop herself from gasping into the bedsheet she was still holding as soon as he had left, coming to the realization of what had just happened. For that brief moment, as his lips had brushed against hers, it had felt like the most natural thing in the world, as if they did it all the time. For that moment, if her mind hadn't kicked in, she could have been truly kissing him in the way she had always fantasized. But after everything, especially now, that brief taste had been the very last thing she had needed.

She felt so lost.

He had decided to go once he'd seen the children. He had had deliveries to make, and he had to be prompt as he always was, even if he felt he was leaving something important behind. By the time he returned it was half twelve at night, not too late for him, but he liked being home a little early. Cloud dismounted casually from Fenrir and patted down the dust and sand on his trousers. He gave a huge stretch with his arms that climbed all the way down his shoulders and across his lower back, and felt several clicks down his spine as air released from his joints.

He climbed up the stairs, past the dark bar. Then, aiming for the bathroom, he was suddenly ambushed by a mass of pyjamas and two various shades of brown hair. He crouched down. Denzel smiled as Cloud placed a hand on his shoulder.

Marlene was holding onto his forearm. "We thought you'd be back even later. Tifa told us not to stay up but..."

Cloud smiled. "Then I guess you better get back to bed before she tells you off for being up so late."

Marlene and Denzel exchanged glances. Cloud watched them, a horrible feeling suddenly sinking through his stomach.

"Tifa's not here," Denzel said cautiously.

"She said she'd be back soon though," Marlene piped up.

There was a pause. Cloud looked intensely at the both of them.

"Where is she?"

"She's round a friend's," Marlene said casually.

Denzel looked less comfortable. "She said she wouldn't be back _too_ late."

Cloud paused for a moment, and then gave them both a nod to head back to bed. Denzel took one last wary look at his hero before closing the bedroom door.

Cloud's breathing had become less relaxed, and his feet felt like lead until he forced them to move, carrying him into his office. He sat down on the edge of the small bed just off from the desk he usually slept in and sat still stonily, staring with a complicated facial expression at the opposite wall.

He was going to wait.

The front door opened and shut. Keys jangled and rang into the quiet of the bar as they turned in the lock. Quiet footsteps thudded against the wood of the bar's floor. The stairs creaked a little, the banister creaked a little, a jaw more delicate than his own opened and closed with a little yawn behind feminine hands. Cloud continued to listen until Tifa was right outside his open door, about to head into her own room. He stood and approached her.

"Tifa."

She jumped and looked round, planting her hand on her chest in fright.

"You scared me, Cloud."

"You're not normally out this late."

"I was seeing a friend," she said, her eyes closing a little as she stifled another yawn.

He hesitated, but then his mouth took over for him.

"Who was it?"

She averted her eyes distractedly to glance at a picture farther down the hallway. "Just a guy I know." And then she moved her eyes back to him as if it was taking her some effort.

_The guy on the phone._

"Why so late?" Cloud was beginning to loom over her in the darkness.

"We talked a lot," she said anxiously, tucking her hair behind her ear.

He stared at her. "Is that all?"

Her eyes narrowed. "You know, Cloud, I can take care of myself."

He listened but couldn't say anything. He could see every detail of her face against the dark walls of the hallway, he could see every curve on her lips and the way she had tightened them together in her reaction to his question. He had to control his hands to stay by his sides; he had an overwhelming desire to kiss her, and not like before, but hard and passionate until she submitted to his aggravated will and told her what he needed to know.

She looked away quickly and her expression changed. She had spotted the way his eyes had jolted from her eyes to her mouth. When her gaze returned it was sweet again, calm, but her eyes still told him it was a little forced for his sake.

"But thanks for caring, okay?" She touched him briefly on the arm and moved from beneath his dominating posture and into her bedroom.

He continued to stand in the middle of the hallway, feeling like part of his world had suddenly gone missing. He could feel the lack of light all over him like a rash, and all the while his muscles pumped with blood and fisted his hands. He tried to shake it off but his whole body felt like a furnace.

Ignoring the sensations coursing round his body like fire he removed himself to his own room.

He had made the effort to say "hey" in the morning, to eat briefly with the children before they went to school, to make conversation like everything was normal. Tifa had constantly been a blur just out of the corner of his vision. He hadn't been able to bring himself to look at her directly, he felt ashamed of how he'd tried to overpower her into telling him her own business the night before. When he had by chance made the mistake of not moving his head in time and caught her eyes on his, he had he recognised a conflicting confusion and emotion in her eyes which he couldn't fully read. He hadn't known what to make of it.

He creased his eyebrows against his goggles as the June winds hit his face, the blue sky hovering above. Recently he had kept thinking of things in certain way; her emotions being because of him, his emotions being because of her, the strange sensations he kept feeling because of something she had said or done to him and vice versa... and what he hoped another person hadn't done to her.

His jaw tightened.

She wouldn't have done anything with that guy, right?

He sighed lightly and fished his hand into his pocket. Slowly he withdrew a little maroon box.

He had distanced himself the afternoon she had mentioned how she imagined her life would be if it wasn't for Sephiroth, and he had distanced himself because he had realised something in that moment, that Tifa was single, Tifa was beautiful and young and thinking of her future, even if her words had all been hypothetical. He was in the same house, stifling her progress and yet, just before he had thought he was a waste of space to her, he had realised something else.

He flicked open the little box with his thumb, and the stone in the ring glinted prettily the cool summer sunshine. Palladium metal from Wutai, the rarest metal he could find, a unique gem stone that had been put together from various materials he had been gathering like a mad man between every other delivery over the past few weeks, the main reason for his fatigue, and a unique design he had conjured up with the jeweller himself. He had tried his best to make it everything that he thought of her: gentle, caring, strong, modest; though stunningly beautiful with little effort or awareness. He snapped the box closed again.

He had realised that the very fact was that he couldn't live without her, and he certainly couldn't let her be with anyone else while he was still breathing. He wouldn't be able to stand it. He was also the only man he could trust to really take care of her, and deep down he had known it all along. The ring was nothing compared to what he really wanted to give her, for her to accept, and taking in a euphoric breath of fresh air deeply into his lungs he finally said it out loud:

"I love her_."_


	11. Love in a Time of Foolishness

**Chapter 11**

**~ Love in a Time of Foolishness ~  
**

Soft sands grated beneath Cloud's feet as he braced himself to kick off the ground. The wind caressed his hair roughly as the bike began to travel faster, and faster. Dust caught in his nose in the wind though he exhaled it away. The sun was falling asleep in the distance and he had three hours to get home, to get back to her.

Plates scraped together and glasses clashed as Tifa settled them into the soapy water in the sink. The main rush was over; the calm later hours were over, and now it was time to close up. Thankfully she knew she wouldn't have to do it alone.

He was going to be late and he knew it. Cloud twisted his fist around the throttle harder and fought against distracting thoughts of Tifa to remain in his zone of concentration. He felt Fenrir's tyres rip up the ground underneath them faster. The pressure increasing on his goggles was starting to suck the blood from around his eyes in his haste.

He strolled in with his messy, almost spiky hair, rough hands, bright eyes, strong shoulders and charismatic grin. Tifa couldn't help grinning back.

"Damn it!" he swallowed. He was low on fuel and the warning light had been on for ages. But he had to get back!

He sat down gingerly on one of the bar stools and she leaned over the counter to show he had her attention. It was nice to have a man around who was never late for a change.

Home. Cloud wheeled Fenrir into the garage and quietly shut the doors. He unpacked everything he needed for the next delivery quickly and put them to the side. Just one little box was left snuggling into the shallow material of his pocket. He opened the door to the bar.

Approaching the bar counter he watched as a dark-haired man in modest-looking shirt, tie and trousers with his back to him sat on one of the bar stools tossing back a drink. The sign on Seventh Heaven's front door now read "closed" and he was the last one of the customers still left. Cloud instantly knew who he was, he didn't need an introduction. The dark-haired man tilted his head to one side and then brought it upright again, seemingly trying to see around the corner and through the storeroom door. He suddenly coughed, patted his chest and rolled his arms back in a giant arching motion, showing off how much they globed. Cloud's heartbeat began to throb menacingly in his ears.

Keeping his cool he walked casually up to the stool beside of the man and sat down. The dark-haired man turned his head. He also had bright blue eyes, though they weren't the result of mako poisoning and so were less brilliant than Cloud's own. His jaw was strong and his eyebrows were like the archways above the doors of churches. Solid and unmovable. His hands looked rough from past manual labour though they were now clean and healing. His dark features also made him look a little haunted, though his soft eyes soon melted that first impression away. In a way he was quite captivating to look at.

"You're Cloud," he said, giving a warming smile.

"Yeah," Cloud replied, unable to keep himself from continuing to eye the guy up.

Tifa came bustling into the room with a bottle of red wine from the storeroom. She stopped dead when she saw Cloud.

"You're home." Her voice sounded faint and disbelieving.

He looked at her straight in the eyes. "Yeah. Deliveries took a little longer than I thought."

She set down the bottle of wine on the bar top and pulled up three wine glasses. "Well, then I guess three's a party. If that's okay with you, Rich?" she said light-heartedly.

"Pour the alcohol already!" he joked, waving his hand like an impatient monarch.

She laughed.

Cloud watched them from his perch on his stool. For some reason the throbbing in his muscles had gone away. He didn't feel angry, he didn't feel that intense heat, he didn't have the strong urge to throw this man head-first into the hardwood bar top and punch him repeatedly until he cried out for his mother. No, Cloud felt perfectly fine. Instead he was now struggling to remove his focus from Tifa.

"What are we celebrating, Rich?" Cloud decided he better make an of effort with the other man.

"Just got promoted," he cheered into his wine glass and took another gulp.

As they continued to talk, despite everything Cloud had been feeling towards him from afar, up-close Rich was an okay guy. He had noticed his looking at Tifa, and his joking with her enough for Cloud to know he was definitely attracted to her... though he sensed nothing more, none of that ego-inflation guys emanate when they're around a girl they've got lucky with. But then he had already figured that out earlier.

Conversations continued further into the night just as much as they became more tipsy. More drinks and laughs had allowed the atmosphere to complete soften and relax, even to aid the forming of a make-shift friendship between Cloud and his rival. It was only hours on that they all became aware of how time had flown by. Rich saw the hour hand of the clock face first and abruptly stood up.

"Well, better be getting rest for tomorrow. No use getting a promotion and turning up hung over _and_ asleep."

"One second! I'll get that book for you," Tifa said rushing upstairs.

Cloud joined Rich on his feet. Rich rapped the bar surface repeatedly with his keys before suddenly looking up at nothing, a blank expression on his face, a thought in his mind. "You're a lucky guy, Cloud."

Cloud turned to look at him.

"I like Tifa a lot but I think this race was won long ago."

Cloud looked at him bewildered. Why was he saying this to him?

Tifa reappeared with a book to hand to Rich. He brought an arm around her in a half-embrace and they kissed each other on the cheek goodbye. It was friendly and platonic, and so Cloud remained relaxed as he waved Rich goodbye. It was just nice to have Tifa back to himself again.

"So what do you think of him?" Tifa asked curiously.

There was a pause as Cloud thought over his answer. "He likes you a lot."

Tifa blushed a little. "Yeah, I thought so."

"A nice guy," he continued.

Tifa threaded her fingers through her hair and looked straight at Cloud. "Yeah, I guess he is but... I don't think he's the one for me." And she looked away as a slight blush came back to her cheeks.

She moved behind the bar, tidying away the wine bottle and wine glasses, bringing her wine colored eyes back up to meet his, entrapping his gaze as he hung on her words.

"And Cloud... nothing happened the other night."

With one last shy smile she disappeared upstairs and his eyes followed her. He hadn't needed to hear it but he still couldn't stop himself from beaming like a child.

/

Cloud hadn't been able to keep his mind from one particular thing - or person - from the moment she'd run upstairs the night before. There was a comfortable silence between them the next morning, she pretending as if it was any other day, besides the small smile he saw constantly tweaking on her lips, while he mirroredly remained equally quiet and relaxed. He knew what exactly he wanted to do next, but he also knew he had to do something else first...

When she moved outside to sweep the steps at the front of the house he followed her casually.

"Tifa." When she looked up she looked gently angelic in the morning sun. Looking up towards the sky he shielded his eyes. "It's a nice day, isn't it?"

She followed his gaze. "Yeah. Summer is certainly showing through, Cloud," she smiled.

"Do you want to go for a ride?" he asked abruptly.

"On Fenrir?"

"Yeah." He watched as her smile grew modestly wider.

"Where?" she asked more curiously.

"Anywhere."

Her eyebrows raised a little, and then she put aside the broom. "Sure."

She wasn't nervous getting onto the back of his bike, gripping his waist and letting him tear off down the streets of Edge until they reached the outskirts and beyond. She had ridden with him a few times before, but there had always been a purpose to it. Now it just felt like nothing else mattered but the road, the dust, nature and them. He couldn't deny he liked how she pressed herself slightly firmer against his back every time he rounded a sharp corner or sped up. When a long stretch of road presented itself the first thing he thought of was to pull on the accelerator. Fenrir flew along the perfect black tar road. Tifa clasped much tighter to him then in what he thought was fear, which suddenly made him panic. He immediately slowed down to a stop by the side of the road and turned his head.

"You okay?"

She looked up from behind him. "I'm fine, Cloud."

"I wasn't going too fast?"

She made an almost giggling sound that made him relax a little. "I trust you."

Her words washed a calming and priding blanket over him, and he exhaled a little in relief. He didn't want to make Tifa scared to be on a bike with him, ever. Turning back towards the handlebars he became aware of her soft fingers in his. His heart raced. He had taken hold of her hand without thinking... and she hadn't pulled away at all. He bit down a huge grin and let her hand fall back around his torso as he re-turned the ignition key. She held her arms around him again and they drove back onto the quiet, lonely roads. There were moments when Cloud could have sworn she was hugging him more than simply holding on; the moments when her head would rest affectionately on his back and she'd sigh contently.

When they returned it was in time to open Seventh Heaven for the busy evening, to Cloud's slight dismay. Having dismounted from the bike Tifa placed the goggles she had borrowed into his right hand. The urge to close his fingers around hers again had almost overwhelmed him.

"Thank you for the ride."

Cloud nodded in acceptance of her thanks, genuinely happy she had enjoyed it. He had enjoyed it too. She strolled back into the bar tucking her hair behind her ears. Both wished they could have travelled together for a little bit longer.

/

It was night-time.

Cloud walked into the kitchen like a predator, silent and stalking. It was a homely, accepting feeling being in this house together with her, though it was suddenly driving him mad. There was a void he had to close, and he was now completely on the edge. Vibrant lights bounced softly from the work tops, off steel pans, cutlery, the flume of the cooker and the little spoon laying beside Tifa's hands as she worked on one of the counters. She turned around and moved over to the cooker, sprinkling fine yellow dust into one of the pans with a tea spoon. Watching the mixture simmer and growl she made a satisfied, little noise from behind her teeth.

He continued his approach from behind. She was still unaware of his presence as she leaned over the pan further to check the heated smells with a wave of her hand. She then adjusted the dial to the zero mark and moved the pan to a cooler ring further back. He outstretched his arms slowly to either side of her. They landed loudly on the cooker. She turned suddenly to find him towering over her. His eyes levelled with hers and her whole body flushed red to the tips of her ears. Her warm red honey eyes were staring up at him and he moved in even closer again. She backed against the cooker and felt the heat rising up her back, around her neck and down her chest where it swelled. Her mouth opened slightly in agape or attraction. Something was dancing in his bright blue eyes as the complete silence confirmed to him what he had longed to know, and know knew: she wasn't going to reject him.

He closed his eyes slightly and so did she, perfect mirror images of each other as his lips parted and so did hers further. Their heads tilted, and then he felt the fullness of her lips against his own. He took them in and the air died around them, the kitchen disappeared, the low hum of the oven shook away and vanished, and he was pulling her into him, away from her grip on the hard surface behind, and felt her arms as they snaked themselves around his neck while his slid down and around her lower back.

They remained like that as everything else in the world blanched away into a white nothingness, the only ones left. When their lips finally parted for the necessity of breath, the world zoomed back into their surroundings; chatter, laughter of customers beyond the door, the soft white lights and warmth of the kitchen, the faint buzzing of the refrigerator and, lastly, the smell of burning soup.

Tifa broke away quickly and turned off all the hobs. The dials had been pushed back up when Cloud had pushed her against the cooker. She let out a hearty sigh as the bubbling of spoiled food subsided. A pair of arms hooked themselves around her waist and she leant back against them into Cloud's strong build. He turned her around in his arms so that she was facing him again and kissed her briefly and tenderly on the lips. She drew back slightly, restoring her arms to their position around his neck and looked up at him, he was smiling back.

"You sure took your time," she teased seriously.

"But just on time, right?" he inserted in a playfully cocky tone.

She simply looked back at him and her smile teased a little more at the edges of her mouth while her eyes sparkled up at him. She suddenly looked down.

"Cloud, there's something digging into my thigh..."

Cloud looked incredulously at her through his blond spikes. She laughed shyly.

"No, not like that..." she coughed. "I mean _that_." She twisted herself slightly to gesture towards his left pocket with her deep brown eyes.

Cloud's heart skipped a beat. He had almost forgotten about it in the exhilaration of getting so close to her. He reached carefully into his pocket and fingered at the latch of the little box.

"I don't want to alarm you," he stated, his eyes gleaming a little with genuine trepidation.

She rubbed her hands warmly over his shoulders. "After everything we've been through I doubt you could do anything to alarm me now."

Reaching in, index-finger first, the little box emerged from the fabric of his pockets. He let it sit calmly in the palm of his hand and brought it up to his chest. The whole time he watched Tifa's widening eyes, raising eyebrows and opening mouth, all out of shock, as all her features grew more animated as he held the box out to her. He flicked the box open.

A thumping heartbeat, ring of beautiful gleaming metal and threatening faintness all came at her in an incoherent blur. For the second time that night everything else in her sphere of vision faded into irrelevant nothing. She could no longer hear Cloud talking; though she could see his mouth moving out of the corner of her eye. His words were lost in some far-off in reality. The box had clicked open, a stunning piece of craftsmanship had stared back at her, and all the sentiment it represented had hit her hard like a bullet through her chest, throwing her heart wide open more than ever before, overwhelming her. His beautiful blue eyes filtered back into view.

"Will you marry me?"

"Yes," she gasped voicelessly.

Air then escaped her as Cloud gripped her close and suffocated her with a long, hard kiss.

He came away only for air. "Good."

The kitchen door flew open.

"Tifa, one of the guys at the bar is saying he ordered his food ages ago when it was only ten minutes ago and I said-" Marlene suddenly froze as her eyes went from the way Cloud was standing over Tifa, to the position of his arms around her neck and waist, to Tifa's position nestled within them, and then back to the split second her eyes had caught them kissing passionately as she'd flung open the door. Her eyes widened as it all hit her at once. "Never mind!" she squeaked. They listened as she rushed up the stairs loudly whispering "Denzel! Denzel!" They turned back to each other and grimaced.

Tifa giggled into his shoulder. "At least we don't need to worry about telling them, now."

"Tifa..." he said silkily, taking the ring from the box and sliding it gently onto her finger. She leaned back and looked up innocently from watching as he did so. "Don't lose this ring... or ever leave it in the bathroom."

She pulled a crossed face but laughed. Shoving him backwards playfully she reassured him with a school-girl smile, "I won't."

More banging on the kitchen door, and this time from an adult customer becoming more annoyed. They both sighed. He was reluctant to leave, but he knew there was a business to run too. With a Herculean effort, he stepped back from her and released her waist from his grip. Tifa's tightened lips told him she was also using a lot of strength to restrain herself from pulling him back into an embrace. The rest would have to wait.

Several hours on, when the lights of the bar finally went out, they both hugged the children good night and watched them walk back to their rooms. Tifa had quickly gone to have a shower, as she always did, to get the smell of food, alcohol and smoke out of her hair. Then she'd fumbled through his door and crashed into his bed, and they were left alone with the peaceful street lamps' lights twinkling through the curtains of Cloud's window. She was evidently exhausted. He hadn't minded, of course. He had been lying awake since she'd gone into the bathroom, waiting for her to come out. If she hadn't had come under his covers he'd have picked her up from her own bedroom and dragged her under himself.

As she lay there, curled up snugly against him, she smelt clean, fresh and soapy, and felt warm, firm and soft. He brought his arms around and from behind her back to hug her closer, ignoring the itch to touch more than just her tummy and her sides. He placed his chin on her shoulder experimentally and gladly let her scent wonder into his senses when she only squirmed gently to get more tangled in his arms.

Her voice was slow and tired but light-hearted and happy. She mused playfully, out-loud, "What will The Great Cloud Strife do now he has his fiancée in bed?"

He paused on his reply. "I'll take you eventually..." His murmurs as he spoke vibrated against her neck and made her shiver. "But right now I'm happy as we are. You're exhausted."

Considerate and loving. She had been wasting time waiting for him for this long, she was thinking to herself.

He held her until her breathing evened out and her body relaxed, melted, into the soft white sheets. Then he fell asleep himself. He would later remember it as one of the best night's sleep he'd ever had.

/

The pillows felt soft beneath him and the blankets lying around his middle were sunshine-warm. Tifa's long hair was draped across the covers and against the pillows next to him now completely dry, beautiful and long. She slept soundlessly on his chest, her right hand resting just bellow his collar bone. He shifted slightly so he could bring his arm round her better and she responded in her sleep by stretching further into him and sighing her head against him further. The corners of his mouth upturned into a smile, and he lowered his head against her own until he could kiss the edges of her hairline. He let himself relax like that and took in the tiny smile teasing subconsciously on her lips that was reflecting his own, and gloated over the perfect engagement ring now adorning her left hand. He closed his eyes to let himself fall back into an unbelievably blissful asleep. He never realised he could be this happy, and he owed it all to the women currently in his arms. He was finally at peace.

Only one last thought lingered as his breathing slowed to sleeping silence:

_I guess we were never really... "just friends"._


End file.
